Device for piling bundles of sheets

ABSTRACT

A plurality of sheet-bundle piling lanes are disposed in perpendicular relation with respect to a common sheet-bundle feed lane for gradually feeding sheet-bundles. At a communicating portion between the sheet-bundle feed lane and each sheet-bundle piling lane, a sheet-bundle take-in lever, for taking the sheet-bundles from the former lane to the latter lane, is disposed. Blocks of bundles of sheets that are piled up are formed at each sheet-bundle piling lane.

This application is a Rule 60 divisional of application Ser. No.07/991,967 filed Dec. 17, 1992, now abandoned, and refiled as continuingapplication Ser. No, 08/274,364.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. [Field of the Invention]

This invention relates to a device for piling or stacking bundles ofsheets that is adapted to pile up, for example, 10 bundles of sheetswhich are stacked up in a serial order as, for example, from 1 to 1000,as in, for example, banknotes, lottery tickets and, post cards, eachbundle consisting of a small number such as, for example, 100 sheetsbearing serial numbers, for example, of from 1 to 100, from 101 to 200and so on, in order to form blocks of piled bundles of sheets.

2. [Brief Description of the Prior Art]

In a conventional device for piling bundles of sheets of the typementioned above, an intermittent rotary drum, with a group of pocketsfor receiving the sheet blocks K, which are arranged in a circularpattern in a plan view, is employed. The sheet-bundles are inserted intothe pocket group formed on the intermittent rotary drum in a serialorder, and then the sheet-bundles in the pockets on the rotary drum aregradually taken out so as to be piled up in serial order.

The above-mentioned conventional device requires an unreasonable amountof work, such as work for inserting the sheet-bundles into the pocketson the rotating drum in serial order and then gradually taking them outso as to be piled up. Moreover, it takes much time and labor to changethe position dividing each pocket, or else it is otherwise required toprepare a spare or extra drum having a different dividing position, thepreparation of such a spare or extra drum naturally also requires aspace for storage. This is not only inefficient but also uneconomical.In particular, it is the actual situation that the formation of piledblocks, which can meet with increased printing speeds, is verydifficult.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a devicefor piling sheet blocks in which the work forming piled blocks bystacking a predetermined number of sheet-blocks, such as theabove-mentioned sheet-bundles, can be effected easily, efficiently andeconomically.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device forpiling three-dimensional sheet blocks in which a large number ofsheet-blocks can be formed in an extremely limited space.

To achieve the above objects, there is essentially provided a device forpiling bundles of sheets comprising a sheet-bundle feed lane adapted totransfer a plurality of sheet-bundles, each formed of a number of sheetspiled up at predetermined spaces, a plurality of sheet-bundle pilinglanes disposed in perpendicular relation with the feed lane and adaptedto pile a predetermined number of the sheet-bundles in a serial order,and a plurality of sheet-bundle take-in mechanisms, each mechanism beingdisposed at a communicating portion between the sheet-bundle feed laneand each of the sheet-bundle piling lanes and adapted to take thebundles of sheets, which are being transferred by the sheet-bundle feedlane, onto the sheet-bundle piling lanes.

From another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided, inorder to achieve the above objects, a device for piling bundles ofsheets in which the sheet-bundle piling lane is of a two-stagestructure. A sheet-bundle pooling table for orderly pooling thesheet-bundles is disposed at an upper-stage thereof and, a sheet-bundleblock pooling table for piling a predetermined number of thesheet-bundles is disposed at a lower-stage thereof. The uppersheet-bundle pooling table is able to be opened and closed so that thesheet-bundles carried thereon are permitted to be dropped. Thesheet-bundles thus dropped are piled on the lower-stage sheet-bundleblock pooling table one after another until they reach a predeterminednumber of sheet-bundles.

Owing to the above-mentioned construction, the sheet-bundles, eachcomposed of a plurality of sheets such as, for example, banknotes, piledin a serial order, are consecutively transferred by the sheet-bundlefeed lane, group by group, bearing the identical serial numbers. Thesheet-bundles, which are being transferred are intermittently taken intoeach sheet-bundle piling lane in the order of the serial numbers by eachtake-in mechanism. As a result, there can be formed, simultaneously andas one group, a plurality of blocks of sheet-bundles piled in the serialorder in the sheet-bundle piling lanes, which lanes are arranged inparallel relation.

According to the present invention, by designing the sheet-bundle pilinglanes in the above-mentioned two-stage structure, the sheet-bundlestaken onto the sheet-bundle piling lanes from the sheet-bundle feed laneby the take-in mechanism are temporarily carried on the sheet-bundlepooling tables of the upper-stage sheet-bundle pooling mechanism bymeans of the sheet-bundle take-in mechanism. Thereafter, thesheet-bundle pooling tables are opened, so that the sheet-bundles arepermitted to drop onto the sheet-bundle block pooling tables disposedunder there so as to be piled on the sheet-bundle block pooling tables.As a result, the blocks of sheet-bundles piled in serial order can beformed, and the blocks thus formed are discharged to the followingprocess by a discharging mechanism.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view explaining a system for forming blocks ofpiled sheet-bundles from large-sized sheet blocks according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a single lane of a device for pilingbundles of sheets according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the above device;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the above device;

FIG. 5 is a front view of an important portion of the sheet-bundlepiling device of the present invention and an explanatory view forexplaining the action thereof;

FIG. 6 is likewise a front view of an important portion of thesheet-bundle piling device of the present invention and an explanatoryview for explaining the action thereof; and

FIG. 7 is likewise a front view of an important portion of thesheet-bundle piling device of the present invention and an explanatoryview for explaining the action thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

The accompanying drawings show one embodiment of a device for pilingbundles of sheets, adapted to pile, for example, 10 bundles of sheetswhich are stacked up in a serial order as in, for example, banknotes,lottery tickets, post cards, each bundle consisting of, for example, 100sheets, in order to form a block of piled bundles of sheets. Theexpression "a serial order" used herein refers to the state of thosesheets which have a sequential order to be piled up from the first-ranknumber to the last-rank number, and should not be limited to thosesheets which bear specific numerical figures, or the like.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a process for forming blocks ofpiled bundles of sheets from blocks of large-sized sheets in order toclarify the basic concept of the present invention. In FIG. 1, thenumeral 1 denotes large-sized sheets. These large-sized sheets 1 arepiled up, for example, 100 per unit in a serial order (for example, 1 to100, or 101 to 200) to form large-sized sheet blocks 1'.

The large-sized sheets 1 are subjected to surface treatment, not shown,both in both vertical and horizontal rows. In order to simultaneouslyform a plurality of blocks of piled bundles of sheets bearing serialnumbers of, for example, 1 to 1000, by piling up 10 bundles of sheets,100 large-sized sheets 1 are piled up to form one block 1' of sheets.Each horizontal row has a plurality of printing surfaces. Each printingsurface of a first large-sized sheet-block bears serial numbers of from,for example, 1 to 100 in the piling direction. Each printing surface ofa second large-sized sheet block bears serial numbers of from, forexample, 101 to 200, and in a like manner, each printing surface of thelast large-sized sheet block bears serial numbers of from, for example,901 to 1000.

The block 1' thus obtained by piling the large-sized sheets 1 one uponanother is first trimmed by a cutter 2 in a trimming process. The block1' formed of the large-sized sheets 1 flatly piled and trimmed, is cutby a cutter 3, for example, in a horizontal row cutting process in orderto form strips 4 of a row unit, gradually from the frontmost row to thelast row for each horizontal row.

The row unit of the strips 4 thus piled up in the identical serialnumbers and thus cut are trimmed by a cutter 5, for example, in atrimming process. The row unit of the strips 4 thus trimmed are then cutat each printing surface of the horizontal row thereof by a cutter 6 ina vertical row cutting process. The resultant strips 4 are bundled in abanding process by a banding device 7 to form a number of sheet-bundles8, each consisting of a unit of 100 sheets bearing consecutive serialnumbers.

A banding portion of each of the bundles of 8 sheets is in a locationtoward one side of the center of the sheet-bundle 8. The sheet-bundles8, banded at the sided location, are turned by 180 degrees for, forexample, every other sheet-bundle, or every other two sheet-bundles,alternately by a turn table 9 of the following process. As one result, abundle of sheets is banded with a band 9a at one location to the rightside and another bundle of sheets adjacent thereto is banded withanother band 9a at a location to the left side.

As a result, when the bundles 8 of sheets have been piled up by apredetermined number, the bands 9a are equally arranged with respect tothe right and to the left, and a central portion of each block 11 of thesheet-bundles 8 is not as bulky as in the case where each bundle ofsheets is banded at a central portion thereof.

The bundles of sheets 8 thus banded are taken onto sheet-bundle pilinglanes 10 in sequential order of serial numbers in order to form blocks11 of piled bundles of sheets arranged in the sequential order of from 1to 1000. The blocks 11 of the piled sheet-bundles 8 are then banded inthe vertical direction in the following vertical banding process withbanding devices 12 and 13 in order to form blocks 14 of pi ledsheet-bundles 8 ready to be delivered.

The number of the sheets for each sheet-bundle 8 and the number of thepiled sheet-bundles 8 for each block can be increased or decreasedaccording to necessity.

Each of the sheet-bundle piling lanes 10 comprises an upper-stagesheet-bundle pooling mechanism 20 disposed on an upper-stage sidethereof, and a lower-stage sheet-bundle block pooling mechanism 30disposed immediately under the pooling mechanism 20.

The upper-stage sheet-bundle pooling mechanism 20 has a pair ofsheet-bundle pooling tables 21 which are opened and closed between asupport position for supporting a group of the bundles 8 of sheets and arelease position for releasing the support. The tables 21 extend inparallel relation with each other the adapted to permit the dropping ofthe group of the sheet-bundles 8 when released. A pair of regulatingplates 22 are disposed along the pooling tables 21 in the longitudinaldirection thereof are adapted to regulate the sides of the sheet-bundles8. The pooling mechanism 20 further has a fluid pressure cylinder(hydraulic cylinder) 23 adapted to open and close the sheet-bundlepooling tables 21 between the above-mentioned support and releasepositions. A piston rod 24 of each of the cylinders 23 and eachsheet-bundle pooling table 21 are connected with each other through aconnecting lever 25, so that the connecting lever 25 can be actuated inaccordance with activation of the cylinder 23 in order to open and closethe sheet-bundle pooling tables 21.

The pooling mechanism 20 comprises an upper transfer means fortransferring the bundles of sheets 8 fed from a feed lane 43, as will bedescribed onto a plurality of upper pooling stations formed on an uppersurface sheet pooling table 21 in an orderly manner. This transfer meanscomprises pushers 26 for pushing the bundles 8 of sheets onto respectivepredetermined upper pooling stations, an endless driving member 27formed of an endless chain, etc. on which the pushers 26 are mounted atpredetermined spaces, a driving wheel 28 and a driven wheel 29 theendless driving member 27 being trained over the wheels 28 and 29.

The endless driving member 27 and the pushers 26 are operated to travelintermittently between the sheet-bundle pooling tables 21, which areopened and closed with respect to each other, and in parallel relationwith the tables 21. A space or distance between the adjacent pushers 26is set in such a manner as to correspond to the one having the maximumdimension among the bundles sheets of 8, and a number of upper poolingstations are formed between the adjacent pushers 26. In other words,each of the upper pooling stations is defined by each pusher 26, theregulating plates 22, and the pooling tables 21.

The lower-stage sheet-bundle block pooling mechanism 30 comprises a pairof sheet-bundle block pooling tables 31 extending in parallel relationunder the sheet-bundle pooling tables 21, a pair of regulating plates 32extending in the vertical direction along both sides (outer sides) ofthe pooling tables 31, and adapted to regulate both side surfaces of thepiled blocks 11, and a device 33 for moving the pooling table 31upwardly and downwardly along the regulating plates 32.

The lower-stage sheet-bundle block pooling mechanism 30 furthercomprises a lower transfer means for transferring the piled blocks 11from a plurality of lower pooling stations formed on the upper surfacesof the pooling tables 31 onto a discharging lane 47. This transfer meanscomprises pushers 34 having the functions of regulating rear end facesof the piled blocks 11 and transferring the blocks 11 to anotherlocation, are operated to travel intermittently, an endless drivingmember 35 having the pushers 34 mounted thereon at predetermined spaces,a driving wheel 36 and a driven wheel 37 with the endless driving member35 trained over the wheels 36 and 37.

The endless driving member 35 and the pushers 34 travel along a centralportion of the pooling tables 31 in such a manner as to be in parallelrelation with the tables 31, and a plurality of lower pooling stationsare formed between the adjacent pushers 34. In other words, the lowerpooling stations are defined by the pushers 34, the regulating plates32, and the pooling tables 31. The upper pushers 26 and the lowerpushers 34 are arranged at equal distances with respect each other, andtherefore the upper and lower pooling stations are also the same innumber. The upper and lower stations are in vertically correspondingrelation when the sheet bundles 8 are dropped from the pooling stationsof the upper-stage sheet-bundle pooling mechanism 20 to the poolingstations of the lower-stage sheet-bundle block pooling mechanism 30.Likewise, the upper and lower pushers 26 and 34 are kept in the positionwhere they are in vertically corresponding relation when the group ofthe sheet-bundles 8 are dropped.

After a first operation of dropping the group of the bundles of sheets 8is finished, the upper pushers 26 are intermittently moved inassociation with an action of feeding the next bundles of sheets 8 fromthe feed lane 43 in order to transfer the bundles of sheets onto therespective upper pooling stations. After the bundles of sheets have beentransferred onto the respective upper poolings stations, the upperpushers 26 start a second operation for dropping the groups of thebundles of sheets. On the other hand, when a predetermined number ofbundles 8 of sheets are dropped on to the lower pooling stations tocomplete the formation of the piled blocks 11, the lower pushers 34 aretraveled to transfer the respective piled blocks 11 onto the discharginglane 47.

A required number of such constructed sheet-bundle piling lanes 10 arearranged at right angles with respect to the sheet-bundle feed lane 43,as will be described.

The numeral 43 denotes a sheet-bundle feed lane for forming a group ofbundles of sheets bearing serial numbers into one group and transferringa plurality of such groups in a consecutive manner. A sheet-bundle 8take-in lane 44, extending colinearly with the sheet-bundle poolingtables 21 of the upper-stage sheet-bundle pooling mechanism 20 isdisposed between the feed lane 43 and the respective sheet-bundle pilinglanes 10, i.e., at an introducing portion of each lane 10.

This take-in lane 44 is provided with pushers 45. A space or distancebetween the adjacent pushers 45 is set such that it is equal to thespace or distance between the adjacent pushers 26. The take-in lane 44is moved with the pushers 26 and 45 placed on a coaxis thereof.

The numeral 46 denotes a sheet-bundle take-in lever for intermittentlytaking sheet-bundles 8 on the sheet-bundle feed lane 43 onto thesheet-bundle piling lane 10 through each take-in lane 44. Thesheet-bundle take-in lever 46 is arranged at a communicating portionbetween the sheet-bundle feed lane 43 and the sheet-bundle piling lane10 (in other words, at a communicating portion between the sheet-bundletake-in lane 44 and the sheet-bundle feed lane 43).

The numeral 47 denotes a common discharge lane disposed on thedischarging side of the lower-stage bundle block pooling mechanism 30,and is adapted to transfer the sheet-bundle blocks 11 to the nextprocess. This discharge lane 47 is provided with pushers 48 fortransferring the sheet-bundle blocks 11 along the lane.

The sheet-bundles 8, cut in accordance with the surface treatment fromthe large-sized sheet-blocks 1' are consecutively transferred atpredetermined spaces or distances by the pushers 49, which are disposedat the sheet-bundle feed lane 43, in the sequential order of the serialnumber group. The sheet-bundles of the same serial number group in thissheet-bundle group, which are being transferred, are taken one by oneonto the sheet-bundle take-in lane 44 by means of the reciprocal motionof the take-in lever 46 shown in FIG. 3, and taken onto the table 21 ofthe upper-stage bundle pooling mechanism 20, which forms thesheet-bundle piling lane 10, through the sheet-bundle take-in lane 44such that they are linearly arranged.

In this upper-stage sheet-bundle pooling mechanism 20, the sheet-bundles8 are supported or carried on the plurality of pooling stations (seeFIGS. 2, 3 and 5) of the sheet-bundle pooling tables 21, which are in aclosed state. When the sheet-bundles 8 have been supported or carried onall of the pooling stations, the pooling tables 21 are opened to permitthe bundles 8 of sheets to drop. When the sheet-bundles 8 have beendropped, the sheet-bundle pooling tables 21 are closed again in order tosupport or carry thereon the bundles 8 of sheets bearing the nextfollowing serial number.

The sheet-bundle pooling tables 21 are opened and closed at apredetermined time interval by the cylinder piston 24 which is expandedand contracted to cause the lever 25 to be pivoted about a fulcrum 50.

The bundles of sheets 8 thus dropped are pooled on pooling stations (seeFIGS. 3 and 6) on the sheet-bundle block pooling tables 31 forming thelower-stage sheet-bundle block pooling mechanism 30, which is disposedright under the tables 21, and the following sheet-bundles 8 are droppedon the tops of the sheet-bundles 8 thus pooled (see FIGS. 3 and 7).

In this way, the sheet-bundles 8 are dropped one after another to formthe sheet-bundle blocks 11, each bearing serial numbers of apredetermined number of sheet-bundles. In this case, the sheet-bundleblock pooling tables 31 are lowered by an elevator mechanism 33 in sucha manner as to correspond to the piling quantity of the sheet-bundles soas to be ready for pooling the following sheet-bundles.

Specifically, when a cam wheel 40 is rotated, step by step, through apredetermined rotary angle by a motor 41, a rotor 39 is guided by thiscam wheel 40 to raise or lower, step by step, a lifting rod 38 in orderto raise or lower the sheet-bundle block pooling tables 31, normally toa level suitable for loading the blocks.

In case 10 bundles of sheets are piled up, as shown in FIG. 3, thesheet-bundle blocks 11 bear serial numbers of from 1 to 1000. Thesheet-bundle blocks 11 thus formed are discharged onto the commondischarge lane 47 by a discharge mechanism.

According to the present invention, bundles of sheets, which are stackedin a serial order as in, for example, banknotes, lottery tickets, postcards, while being transferred by the feed lane, can be taken onto thesheet-bundle piling lanes which are disposed in parallel relation withrespect to the feed lane, in order to simultaneously and consecutivelyform a number of blocks of bundles of sheets stacked in a serial order.

In other words, the present invention can very effectively andeconomically pursue the work of piling up a required number of bundlesof sheets, and is capable of surely solving the afore-mentioned problemsinherent in the conventional drum system.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device for piling bundles of sheets,comprising:a plurality of sheet bundle piling lanes adapted to pile up apredetermined number of bundles of sheets, each said sheet bundle pilinglane comprising an upper stage and a lower stage, said upper stagecomprising an upper sheet bundle pooling mechanism and said lower stagecomprising a lower sheet bundle pooling mechanism immediately below saidupper sheet bundle pooling mechanism; said upper sheet bundle poolingmechanism comprising a pair of sheet bundle pooling tables spaced apartin a direction having a plurality of predetermined sheet bundle poolingstations located along said tables in a direction normal to thedirection in which said tables are spaced apart, wherein said pair ofspaced apart tables have regulating plates thereon and fluid pressurecylinders connected thereto for opening and closing said tables betweena support position for supporting sheet bundles at said pooling stationsand a release position for releasing the sheet bundles from the supportposition and permitting the sheet bundles to drop, and a plurality ofpushers adapted to push sheet bundles into said sheet bundle poolingstations of said sheet bundle pooling table, wherein said pushers ofsaid upper sheet bundle pooling mechanism are mounted on an endlessdriving member above said sheet bundle pooling tables; said lower sheetbundle pooling mechanism comprising sheet bundle block pooling tablesdisposed so as to be upwardly and downwardly moveable, said sheet bundleblock pooling tables comprising a pair of tables spaced apart andextending parallel with respect to each other, a plurality ofpredetermined block pooling stations spaced along said sheet bundleblock pooling table adapted to receive and pile up into blocks sheetbundles dropped from said upper sheet bundle pooling mechanism at saidpredetermined pooling stations of said sheet bundle block poolingtables, a plurality of pushers adapted to discharge the blocks of sheetbundles from said sheet bundle block pooling tables after apredetermined number of sheet bundles is accumulated, wherein saidpushers of said lower sheet bundle pooling mechanism are mounted on anendless driving member and extend up through said sheet bundle blockpooling table, and a device for moving said sheet bundle block poolingtable up and down between a lower position in which said sheet bundleblock pooling table is flush with said endless driving member and anupper position in which said sheet bundle block pooling table is abovesaid endless driving member.
 2. A sheet bundle piling lane,comprising:an upper stage and a lower stage, said upper stage comprisingan upper sheet bundle pooling mechanism and said lower stage comprisinga lower sheet bundle pooling mechanism immediately below said uppersheet bundle pooling mechanism; said upper sheet bundle poolingmechanism comprising a pair of spaced apart sheet bundle pooling tableshaving a plurality of predetermined sheet bundle pooling stationslocated along said tables in a direction normal to the direction inwhich said tables are spaced apart, wherein said pair of spaced aparttables have regulating plates thereon and fluid pressure cylindersconnected thereto for opening and closing said tables between a supportposition for supporting sheet bundles at said pooling stations and arelease position for releasing the sheet bundles from the tables andpermitting the sheet bundles to drop, and a plurality of pushers adaptedto push sheet bundles into said sheet bundle pooling stations of saidsheet bundle pooling tables, wherein said pushers of said upper sheetbundle pooling mechanism are mounted on an endless driving member abovesaid sheet bundle pooling tables; said lower sheet bundle pilingmechanism comprising sheet bundle block pooling tables disposed so as tobe upwardly and downwardly moveable, said sheet bundle block poolingtables comprising a pair of tables spaced apart and extending parallelwith respect to each other, a plurality of predetermined block poolingstations on said sheet bundle block pooling tables adapted to receiveand pile up into blocks sheet bundles dropped from said upper sheetbundle piling mechanism at said predetermined pooling stations of saidsheet bundle block pooling tables, a plurality of pushers adapted todischarge the blocks of sheet bundles from said sheet bundle blockpooling tables after a predetermined number of sheet bundles isaccumulated, wherein said pushers of said lower sheet bundle pilingmechanism are mounted on an endless driving member and extend up throughsaid sheet bundle block pooling tables, and a device for moving saidsheet bundle block pooling tables up and down between a lower positionin which said sheet bundle block pooling tables are flush with saidendless driving member and an upper position in which said sheet bundleblock pooling tables are above said endless driving member.